Teacher detained after he objected to dismissal at post-coup rights watchdog

O.K., a teacher who was previously purged from his job by a government decree after a failed coup in 2016, was detained when he visited a state of emergency bureau to object to his dismissal on Tuesday.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, O.K. was detained as part of an investigation into Gülen movement followers in Trabzon while he was submitting an objection to the state of emergency bureau at the Trabzon Governor’s Office.

Anadolu said there was an outstanding detention warrant for O.K. over accusations of using ByLock, a smart phone application that Turkish authorities believe Gülen followers use to communicate.

Despite US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the movement having denied any involvement in the failed coup last year, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put the blame on the movement and launched a widespread witch-hunt against its followers.

As part the government witch-hunt against the movement, more than 146,000 people lost their jobs, some 169,013 faced legal proceedings that left over 125,000 detained and 55,000 in pre-trial arrest and at least 520 children are accompanying their parents in jail.